According to internal documents obtained by Insider, Amazon drew out the process of canceling a Prime membership.
Before a Prime member could cancel their subscription, multiple layers of questions and new offers were created by the project. At one point in the year, the number of Prime cancelations dropped by more than 10% as fewer people looked at the final cancellation page.
The multistep cancellation process is one example of a subtle user-experience design choice Amazon has made.
In recent years, multiple complaints have been filed with the Federal Trade Commission asking for an investigation into Amazon Prime's cancellation process and use of dark patterns.
The Norwegian Consumer Council said in January that Amazon manipulates users through wording and graphic design, making the process difficult and frustrating to understand.
In an email to Insider, an Amazon spokesman said the sign-up and cancellation processes for Prime are simple and transparent.
The vice president of Amazon Prime said in a statement that customer transparency and trust are top priorities. We listen to customer feedback and look for ways to improve the experience.
Canceling a Prime subscription is not as easy as the 500-page ancient Greek epic poem of Project Iliad would make you believe.
The end membership button can be found under the manage membership tab, which leads to a series of offers.
The first prompt says "don't give up on movie night" and flags how many days are left until the next billing cycle.
The next prompt will show users how much money they can save by changing to an annual payment plan. The annual Prime membership fee increased from $119 to $139 and the monthly fees increased from $13 to $15.
Users are asked to confirm the cancellation of their membership. The first three yellow buttons on the page offer to pause or keep the membership.
There are two yellow buttons next to the page that can be used to cancel or pause the membership.
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